A section of Congressmen in Uttarakhand has expressed dissatisfaction at the delay in constituting a new state Congress working committee. But the party leadership is unlikely to constitute the committee before mid-October.

Sources in the organisation said that detractors of the new PCC leadership are trying to rake up the issue of the delay in forming the working committee.

This group of Congress leaders said that newly appointed PCC president Kishor Upadhyaya wants to keep his opponents in the party at bay. They plan to bring this fact to the notice of AICC state in charge Ambika Soni and other senior leaders who have a say in the state organisation.

However, the PCC leadership is not baffled and said that they have had other priorities in the recent past. Well placed sources in the organisation said Upadhyaya is not perturbed by his detractors and is focusing on increasing party membership. Besides, the Congress high command is also not in a hurry to form the new PCC working body. Upadhyaya had dissolved the earlier PCC working committee nearly a month ago.

“Till now new the PCC president has not got time to consider prospective names for the PCC working committee as he was busy in other things. First it was the panchayat elections, then assembly by-elections and now on top of the agenda is the membership drive,” said PCC chief coordinator Jot Singh.

Singh added that PCC bodies cannot be constituted in a day or two as leadership has to take into account the entire situation. “At present the PCC chief wants to focus on the membership drive across almost 10,000 polling booths in the state which began on Wednesday. He will make trips to six districts in Kumaon between August 1 and September 6 in order to assess antecedents of Congressmen there. This will be followed by similar trips in Garhwal region and then detailed discussions with senior party leaders and legislators,” said Singh.

At present the state Congress has three functionaries including Upadhyaya. Singh is the chief coordinator and Surendra Arya is the state Congress media coordinator.